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Changed oil then had strange warning lights

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by adrianblack, Oct 10, 2010.

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  1. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    Strange thing happened yesterday. After changing my oil as I left my friends house I had a couple weird indicator lights. ABS warning, the yellow indicator next to that ((!)) and the traction control light were all lit and solid. Brakes felt a little unusual. Less sensitive than normal but working fine....

    I pulled out of his driveway, then went about 20 feet and pulled over. Shut the car completely off, turned it back on and all was normal.

    The exclamation indicator was not lit nor Check engine and no messages were displayed. No beeping ....

    Anyone seen this? It's almost like I had the car in some kind of brake test mode or something.

    Here's what I did before I left his house:

    While on jack stands I changed my oil. While it was still up on jacks I turned on the car to run the engine for a moment. (I put it in neutral to let it run for about 1 minute.) No leaks .. buttoned up the car, put it back on the ground. Filled oil to the top line and ran the engine again for maybe 30 seconds. Everything normal. Then I had it in "ON" mode while I checked my tire air pressure. (I had a warning indicator about that.) Once I had tires correct I put the car in ready mode. All indicators off and normal. Shut off car then had it in accessory for a little while. (Listening to radio.)

    It was after this I left his house..... So I definitely cycled the car on and off several times.

    I need to check for any stored DTCs ... just seems odd. It kind of felt like the brakes were operating in bypass mode.
     
    #1 adrianblack, Oct 10, 2010
  2. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Have you checked you brake fluid level?
     
    #2 spiderman, Oct 10, 2010
  3. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    Yep. When I changed the oil I took note of the brake fluid and both coolant tanks. All is normal.
     
    #3 adrianblack, Oct 11, 2010
  4. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Odd for sure. I would be willing to bet there are no codes, but do let us know.
     
    #4 spiderman, Oct 11, 2010
  5. Bob64

    Bob64 Sapphire of the Blue Sky

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    Something like this happened to me. Might be a sign of a failing 12v battery of an overheating inverter?

    I never really found the problem since it didn't happen again. Then again, I have a Gen2... so I do not know?
     
    #5 Bob64, Oct 11, 2010
  6. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    Don't think it would be either of those. The indicators shown all point to the anti-skid ECU which is a standalone unit on the Gen III. It also keeps a separate log of "events" which I will pull. (Any time ABS/TCS/ESP is used, it captures a freeze frame which includes steering input, g-force and everything.)

    I know my 12v battery is in good shape. People have talked about parking their Prius for 10 days to find a dead battery .... I have left mine more than 3 weeks without driving it and when I come back no problems at all.

    Tomorrow I'm going to look through the service manual to see if I can see anything that might match this.
     
    #6 adrianblack, Oct 11, 2010
  7. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    Pulled codes today:

    U0073 INF 463 -> Bus off occurs once or more per 0.1 seconds 10 times repeatedly.
    U0123 - Lost comm with Yaw Rate Sensor
    U0124 - Lost comm with Lat Accel Sensor
    U0126 - Lost comm with steering angle sensor

    I'm not worried. The freeze frame data shows I had the parking brake set but I wasn't pushing the brake pedal. If I recall, I fiddled with my ScanGauges cables for a moment and when I was doing that I must have glitched the bus. I know this happens as once I plugged in the OBDII connector and it blanked out the combination meter speed for a moment....

    The NAV unit also had U0073 stored as well so that goes with my theory.

    The Engine, Hybrid and Brake ECU all talk to each other over their own CAN BUS and it's electrically isolated from the bus the DLC (OBDII) connector is on. Good move as a glitch from the DLC connector which I caused won't affect the critical systems. :)
     
    #7 adrianblack, Oct 12, 2010
  8. spiderman

    spiderman wretched

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    Very interesting... thanks for sharing the info.
     
    #8 spiderman, Oct 12, 2010
  9. PaJa

    PaJa Senior member

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    Today I found the similar. I had ELM327 blue box connected to DLC3 (OBD-II) connector, TORQUE running. I just stopped to fill the gas tank, IGN-OFF, locked doors. After unlocking and IG-ON, the ELM was not able to connect to the CAN bus and TRC, ABS, Brake warning orange lights lid on. The TRC/ABS ECU was bypassed and brakes (by my fealing) worked in safe mode. I stopped the car, cycled and all warnings disappeared. When I connect Techstream at home, I read the U0073 code - CAN communication lost. So, maybe some wrong ELM327 initialisation blocked the CANbus or whatever - who knows.
     
    #9 PaJa, Jan 18, 2012
  10. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    How long did the oil change take you? Was it a quick 20 mins or did you spend all afternoon at it with a few beers?

    Did you leave the doors open with the interior lights on (and kill a weak 12v)?

    When you started the car did you put the car in Drive whilst it was suspended?

    Did you leave the car alone whilst changing the oil? Could a friend have inadvertantly switched the car on into 'Ready' whilst there was no oil in the engine?
     
    #10 GrumpyCabbie, Jan 18, 2012
  11. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    My original post was a while ago .... but no, when I changed the oil it was quick .. like 20 minutes. Doors closed... I do run the engine while still jacked up to make sure there are no leaks, but not in drive. It had to have been the SCANGAUGE II glitching the bus as I fiddled with the cables. I've had the SGII connected since I bought my car in 2009 and never had this issue since -- although I specifically try not to connect or disconnect things from the DLC while the car is running.
     
    #11 adrianblack, Jan 18, 2012
  12. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    With the car up on safety stands the wheels are going to be hanging down, much more than usual. Maybe this tripped something in the brake system?

    It raised an alarm with me when you mentioned running the car while supported on safety stands. Maybe it's safe, don't really know, but it's never even occurred to me to do that, in decades of raising cars. There can be a jolt when the engine starts; I just would not want that in the equation. And if you're in a garage, even with the doors open...

    If it's just to check for leaks, I think it's a solution in search of a problem: if you've torqued the oil filter and drain bolt, you will not have leaks. And it's easy enough still to look under with the car on the slab, and/or back up and look for drips.
     
    #12 Mendel Leisk, Jan 18, 2012
  13. adrianblack

    adrianblack Member

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    You always should run the engine for a few moments after filling it with oil on all cars. You can't just trust the gasket on the filter cap or the plug gasket is good. Once the car is down and the cover reinstalled, you would not even see a leak until so much oil drained into the cover it and sound insulation it starts to leak out of that. (Since on the Prius all of this is hidden under covers behind the engine. By that time you saw oil leaking onto your floor you could have a very serious problem on your hands.

    Step 8 in the 2010 Prius Service manual is to run the engine in inspection mode right after filling oil to check for leaks. This is before reinstalling the under cover and lowering the car.
     
    #13 adrianblack, Jan 18, 2012
  14. seilerts

    seilerts Battery Curmudgeon

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    Both of these sound like a 12V battery problem. Listening to the radio in ACC in the former case, having the car in Ig-On in the latter. If the 12V sags too much, then you will see these sorts of comm errors.

    If you really want to load test your 12V, put it in Ig On for a few minutes.
     
    #14 seilerts, Jan 18, 2012
  15. jdcollins5

    jdcollins5 Senior Member

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    +1 Agree. I have always run my engine before lowering the car to check for leaks, both on ramps and jack stands. I have never had an issue doing this.
     
    #15 jdcollins5, Jan 18, 2012
  16. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    My money is on a weak 12v but also I know from some of my colleages that who have had error/warning lights display on their (non Prius) cars if they've spun out on a bend or similar. Think that's something to do with some wheels spinning in different directions at high speed etc that throws an error/warning light.
     
    #16 GrumpyCabbie, Jan 18, 2012
  17. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    There's your problem. You should have the car in IG-ON or READY when hooking up the SG. Doing it before powering can make http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...iately-got-these-error-codes.html#post1287119 happen. I've done it a few times beyond the post I made.

    If I hook it up in IG-ON or READY, I have no problems.
     
    #17 cwerdna, Jan 18, 2012
  18. The Critic

    The Critic Resident Critic

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    #18 The Critic, Jan 18, 2012
  19. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Yes. I only disconnect it when taking somewhere for service or if I really fear someone will break into my car for it (sketchy area). I don't want to wear out the OBD-II connector, esp. on the car side.

    When I last lived in WA state, I parked outside in unsecured parking (no choice) for >1.5 years and never had any problem w/my SG attached to my dash.
     
    #19 cwerdna, Jan 18, 2012
  20. Former Member 68813

    Former Member 68813 Senior Member

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    I got the same thing with ELM327 and Torque. The brakes worked differently and regenerative braking was mostly disabled. Disappeared on the next reboot (prius reboot that is). I guess I need to make sure to plug in the OBD2 AFTER ready light?
     
    #20 Former Member 68813, Jan 11, 2013
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